child’s play

If you haven’t heard of it already, Child’s Play is a charity who donates toys and games to improve the lives of sick children in hospitals worldwide. Imagine being a child and stuck in a hospital for an extended time, even over the holidays and Christmas.

The unique approach of Child’s Play is that each hospital sets up a wishlist on Amazon, say they want 5 DS lites, and 8 copies of Nintendogs. You can take a look at that and donate a pink DS to your local hospital. Child friendly games of course! Wii’s and the Nintendo DS seem to be the most popular consoles to buy for. Nintendo has succeeded again with their family friendly image!

I recently contacted the manager of Child’s Play, Kristin Lindsay from Penny Arcade, about why some hospitals only accept paypal (like Starship Children’s Hospital in New Zealand) and not wishlists.

“Unfortunately Amazon.comdoes not ship games and electronics outside the US, and there is no Australian affiliate. Last year we were able to work with online retailer DStore, but Dstore chose not to come back this year so we are left without a viable system for items for Australia and New Zealand. Until we can work out a new partner retailer for those countries, we are limited to cash donations.”

So hopefully some other online retailer will step up to the plate. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

I highly suggest you take part in this charity as a fellow gamer and human being. Donate to your local hospital using PayPal or buy something from one of the wishlists and have it sent off and make a child’s Christmas, something special. It is the giving season. 🙂